A Bronx high schooler was told to “be safe” by a friend moments before being shot to death walking home from school, the victim’s devastated family told the Daily News.
Lamar Simmons, 19, was shot in the chest at E. 183rd St. and Hughes Ave. in Belmont about 2:05 p.m. Wednesday. He was less than half a mile from home when he was slain in broad daylight.
“He was a good kid. He was doing what he had to do. He was trying to finish school,” said the victim’s sister, 30-year-old Letesha Simmons. “He never caused anyone any trouble. He was barely outside. I’m just at a loss for words right now.”
Medics rushed Lamar to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died.
Police are searching for three men last seen fleeing the scene on a scooter east on E. 183rd St. No arrests have been made.
Lamar’s slaying is the 17th homicide in the Bronx this year. Half of the city’s murders this year through Sunday have taken place in the borough, NYPD stats show.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced last month that 200 additional officers will be assigned to the Bronx after it is divided into two borough commands this spring.
Lamar was heading home from Urban Dove Teen Charter School II in Mott Haven when he was killed, his family says. He had been walking with a classmate but the pair had split up just moments before the shots rang out, his sister said.
“He and his friend Carmine separated and said, ‘Be safe.’ Then Carmine heard gunshots,” Letesha said.
Carmine immediately notified the victim’s relatives, who sprinted to the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hosptial, which happens to be located less than 1,000 feet from the family’s apartment building.
“When we got to the hospital, the cops and the doctors said he passed,” said Letesha. “When they first told me in the hospital I was screaming. I still can’t believe it.”
Police said Lamar had no criminal history.
The sister remembered him as an upbeat kid who loved playing video games.
“You could be feeling down and Lamar could just bring you up. He was just a sweet person. Happy. No attitude,” she said. “He had a good personality.”
Lamar, who was born and raised in the Bronx, leaves behind Letesha and an older brother.
“We’re trying to keep it together,” Letesha said. “He was the youngest. He was our baby.”
“An innocent person that still deserves to be on the face of this earth— his life is cut short,” she added. “He didn’t get a chance to finish high school, get his diploma or do nothing.”
Lamar was a striver, his mother said.
“He was working on getting a security job while he was going to school,” said the victim’s mother, who did not share her name. “He just wanted to work, anything he could do. He wanted to better himself. He never got around to it because all of this happened.”
Lamar had hopes of one day hitting it big and buying a large house outside the city.
“He wanted to move somewhere nice,” said 18-year-old Rey Valentin, the victim’s best friend. “Not here.”
Valentin spoke to The News at his late friend’s apartment, where he went to grieve and offer comfort to the victim’s family.
“It hurts,” he said. “It hurts a lot.”
Lamar’s’ killing is the first this year in the 48th Precinct. By this time last year, three people had been murdered in the precinct. Two people had been shot in the precinct this year as of Sunday, compared to five people shot by that time last year.
But through Sunday, the Bronx had seen half of the city’s homicides this year and 44% of its shootings.
Citywide, homicides and shootings are down this year, with 32 murders and 99 people shot through Sunday, compared to 55 murders and 112 people shot by the same time last year.
This spring the NYPD will divide the Bronx into a Patrol Borough North and South.
Patrol boroughs are commands that oversee local police precinct operations. Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn have two patrol boroughs, while the Bronx and Staten Island have only had one.
“Why do you wake up one day and you just decide to take such an innocent life?” Lamar’s sister said of his killer. “What is going on in your mind? What happened in your life that you just decide to take it out on somebody else?”
